[NU Sports] Ryan Field fans ...

[Michael Vance]

I agree that's part of it.  Of course, the 11am starts are for TV.  The 
conference essentially sacrifices some non-diehard gate receipts for the 
ability to get every game on television, even if it's just regional.  I 
still wonder why they can't make the starts 12:00 and 3:30 CT, like they do 
for the NFL.  Is it just because the college game tends to run a little 
longer than the NFL?

That raises an interesting hypothetical question, not that I think it would 
ever happen: Would it be worth it to give up/change one (or even both) of 
the two clock rules that allow NFL games to be shorter in order to change 
kickoff times?

(For reference, the differences are 1) College: 25-second play clock starts 
after the ball is set; NFL: 40-second play clock starts immediately at the 
end of the previous play, 25-second clock used after an administrative stop 
(penalty, timeout, change of possession, etc.); 2) College: Clock stops to 
move the chains on first down; NFL: First down has no effect on the clock; 
it stops/continues running based on the outcome of the previous play.)

There would have to be market research indicating that an hour difference 
in kickoff time would increase the gate, and of course you'd have to 
convince someone in the conferences that the theory was interesting enough 
to commission the research.  And there are big holes in the 
theory.  Michigan and dOSU fill their 100,000+ stadiums despite a huge 
chunk of their fans coming from major metropolitan areas with significant 
nightlife, although Minnesota's attendance struggles support the 
theory.  And Bloomington and Champaign can't fill ~65,000 seat stadiums 
despite being closer in demographics to Iowa City than to Chicago.

Unfortunately, I think that it's a very complex combination of history; 
affinity for the program among non-alums (public universities are, well, 
just that, and people get emotionally attached to them even if they never 
went there); marketing; current performance/record; availability of the 
product on TV (why go to an NU game when you can sit on the couch or go to 
a bar and watch every Big Ten team at once?); and yes, kickoff time.  And 
I'm sure there are other factors that I've missed.  And no, I don't have an 
answer to most of them.  :-)

-Michael

At 11/6/2005 06:25 AM, JHCCLARK at aol.com wrote:
>I keep saying it and saying it [usually off-list, but once a year I make
>this contribution]...
>
>The 11am starts kill attendance.
>
>This is CHICAGO not Iowa City.  There are actually things to do on a  Friday
>night that don't shut down at 9pm.
>
>Unsure what the fix to this is [having the EST games start at noon, CST
>games at 3:30pm, making sure that there are always an even distribution of
>EST-CST games each weekend] but this is a major attendance killer.
>
>Leaving early?  Fans do that everywhere, especially when you're  tired from
>the night before and miserable from the lack of decent play.   But having 
>said
>that, it wasn't smart on their part.
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